To start a new sitcom with 18 seconds of unbroken silence after the opening music has faded is a brave move. Such minimalism is not to everyone's taste and some viewers may switch off there and then, but others will recognise it as the calling card of minimalist comedy, which is unafraid of silence or indeed inaction.
The Café's makers - writers Ralf Little and Michelle Terry, and director Craig Cash - are graduates of the “less is more” school pioneered by The Royle Family (the landmark television comedy in which Little and Cash performed together), The Office and Extras (in which Terry appeared), with unspoken thoughts and feelings conveyed by the merest hint of a raised eyebrow or a look to camera. Others in the genre include Pete Versus Life and, the cream of the current crop, Him & Her, which, like The Café, is essentially a one-room drama.
The one room here is Cyril's, a café on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare in Somerset (Terry's home town), a location that presages some stock West Country accents (some of them sounding vaguely in the right county) and a convenient setting for an "all human life is here" collection of characters. The set-up is that the café is not overrun with customers; it's owned by Carol (Ellie Haddington), whose dear old mum Mary (June Watson) sits on a sofa all day commenting on everything that goes on, while Carol's daughter (Terry) has come back home after being dumped by her London boyfriend. She is also an aspiring writer.
The writing and directing team of The Café will need to get a move on if their slow-burn approach doesn't begin to look like it comes from a paucity of ideas
Sarah once went out with Little's geeky Richard Dickens, a care worker and gifted musician who is so nice that he turns down a stadium gig as a backing guitarist because he has made a previous commitment, while Carol's love interest is David Troughton's flower seller Stan, who is oblivious to her charms but is unconsciously courting her through the medium of leftover flowers, laden with meanings of love and friendship. While much that passes between the leads is left unspoken and is all hints and meaningful looks, their friends - Phoebe Waller-Bridge's daft hairdresser Chloe, and Kevin Trainor as camp-as-you-like pier "life statue" Kieran - are allowed to fill in some broader comedy, she with her dopey and inappropriate “did you know” conversational gambits and he sucking coffee through a straw so he doesn't spoil his make-up.
Little, if anything, happened in last night's opener, but the characters were economically (if rather predictably) drawn. As I remarked in a recent review, it isn't fair to judge sitcoms on their first episode, but the writing and directing team of The Café will need to get a move on if their slow-burn approach doesn't begin to look like it comes from a paucity of ideas. Even when Sarah's former schoolmate John (Daniel Ings), once a chubster but now looking like a male model, drove into town in his Porsche to pay his sick mother a rare visit, the pace didn't pick up, and a rivalry between him and Richard (who is nursing the mum at the care home where he works) felt like it was being signposted a mile off.
But there some nice touches – everybody exits scenes with a chorus of “Laters!”, a nod to the comedic repetition of The Royle Family's characters – while there are neat little throwaway gags such as Stan affectionately calling Richard “Dick-Dick”, and it was beautifully shot on the few days in the year when the British weather was behaving itself. There were few big laughs last night, but it's low-fi comedy done well and looks worth sticking with.
- The Café continues on Sky1 on Wednesdays